U.S. eCommerce merchants are increasingly pressing their payment service providers for technology upgrades, with the primary objective being boosting conversion rates, a direct impact on their bottom line.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “U.S. Merchants Want Help From PSPs on Make-or-Break Checkout to Boost Conversion,” a collaboration with Mastercard, explored the technology preferences of middle-market eCommerce businesses across five countries, with a specific focus on the United States edition.
The study found that nearly 7 in 10 eCommerce merchants in the U.S. face challenges with the user experience during the checkout process. Key pain points identified included the persistent issues of abandoned carts and lengthy checkout times. Consequently, merchants are actively seeking and requesting technologies that can mitigate these problems, enhance the user experience and lead to improved conversion rates.
This focus indicates that U.S. merchants view conversion as the goal, considering other factors like customer experience enhancements or fraud reduction primarily as means to achieve this end. More than three-quarters of U.S. merchants surveyed reported having asked their PSPs to enable new features specifically aimed at boosting conversion.
The demand from U.S. merchants regarding checkout technology preferences points toward specific solutions:
- The leading driver for technology requests to PSPs is to increase conversion rates. Among U.S. merchants who indicated they could ask their PSPs for upgrades, 44% identified increasing conversion rates as the most important factor, and an additional 28% considered it an important factor. These figures outweigh other considerations.
- Among the checkout and payment technologies merchants have requested from their PSPs to improve conversion, one-click solutions topped the list, with 45% of U.S. merchants asking for this type of technology. Merchants said one-click technologies can speed up checkouts, enhance customer experience and boost conversion.
- Following one-click solutions, the second most frequently requested technology was secure card on file (27%), while biometric authentication ranked third (25%). Trailing further behind were requests for gateway tokens (22%) and network tokens (20%).
The report also illuminated potential areas for PSPs to enhance their value proposition beyond transactional processing. While merchants gave PSPs higher marks for basic service qualities like wide availability and ease of use, many said their PSPs do not provide advantages in other strategic areas. The data suggested merchants often see their PSPs as a necessity rather than a strategic, value-adding partner.
The report found that 44% of U.S. merchants said their PSP made the checkout user experience easy and convenient. This points to a missed opportunity for PSPs to proactively communicate available services and demonstrate how their offerings, particularly those related to user experience and conversion optimization, can directly benefit their merchant clients and help change this perception.
